Repentance for One Who Is Unable to Return Injustices
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
He asks: What is the ruling on one who wants to repent but is unable to fulfill the conditions of repentance, specifically that he is unable to return injustices, such as stolen money or the like?
The Shaykh:
Repentance is necessary, and returning injustices is necessary if possible. If it is not possible to return them, he gives them in charity if he does not know their owners and cannot deliver them to them, or if he fears that delivering them to them would lead to a greater harm. He gives these moneys that he took from people in charity with the intention that the reward belongs to their owners, and he thereby gets rid of them. However, if he is able to deliver them to their owners, even through an intermediary, it is obligatory for him to deliver them to their owners.
The questioner:
If he has squandered it and does not possess it.
The Shaykh:
If he is able, if he is able later to pay its equivalent, he pays it, yes, if he is able.
He asks: What is the ruling on one who wants to repent but is unable to fulfill the conditions of repentance, specifically that he is unable to return injustices, such as stolen money or the like?
The Shaykh:
Repentance is necessary, and returning injustices is necessary if possible. If it is not possible to return them, he gives them in charity if he does not know their owners and cannot deliver them to them, or if he fears that delivering them to them would lead to a greater harm. He gives these moneys that he took from people in charity with the intention that the reward belongs to their owners, and he thereby gets rid of them. However, if he is able to deliver them to their owners, even through an intermediary, it is obligatory for him to deliver them to their owners.
The questioner:
If he has squandered it and does not possess it.
The Shaykh:
If he is able, if he is able later to pay its equivalent, he pays it, yes, if he is able.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، محاضرات في العقيدة والدعوة-030-الشباب والاستهزاء بالدين|صالح الفوزان|كبار العلماء — youtube.com (52:14)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.